


needed to change the resolution in the configuration tool to 720p for the game to start, runs fine otherwise
had to manually assign keys to each button

Set resolution to 640x480 or 960x720 using the "Launch Controller Layout Tool" option at launch.
Bound dpad to act as left thumbstick.
Disable framerate cap and allow tearing to minimize latency.
Resolution cannot be set to 1280x960 or the game will fail to initialize.
Plays great after the resolution and control scheme are set correctly.

Perfect!
No issues.
Custom wrapper script
In order to play the game with thcrap, while keeping Steam integration, use this wrapper: https://github.com/tactikauan/thcrap-steam-proton-wrapper
Game runs perfectly. After the initial setup, it ran fine for 3 hours without any bugs or crashes. This setup only needs to be done once.
My video card is a bit old and does not support Vulkan.
Game crashes if you try to launch the game in a resolution bigger than your monitor and in full screen. Both the conditions need to be met, so launching in windowed mode or with a resolution smaller than your monitor in full screen is fine.
All details about the setup I did are available at https://gist.github.com/kazuyanakamura/85c85bc62ac5a10646c24b6b7cf7c134